Photography

The photography department is constantly redefining the photographic medium. Faculty and students alike are engaged in a wide range of photographic and theoretical practices. The department’s conceptual orientation is complemented by a simultaneous attention to traditional forms of image production that make the graduate program uncommonly diverse. Within various conceptual structures, graduate students gain a strong critical, historical, and theoretical grounding for their work.

Special topic classes that address the most current issues of artistic, philosophical, and theoretical ideas create a rich and cutting-edge dialogue within the department and the School at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. These classes are proposed and taught by faculty who themselves are intimately engaged in these issues in their own work. Graduate tutorials are a challenging intensification of this pedagogical approach. In addition to regular and part-time faculty, nationally and internationally-recognized artists are invited to participate in the program as visiting artists and lecturers.

The interdisciplinary practice at the School is strongly present in the photography department. Graduate studio and theory seminars in photography are taken by students from many areas of the School, and photography graduates are encouraged to move outside the department to find other ways of considering their image-making process. Each graduate student has his or her own studio, and the department works to create both a social community and a highly charged environment for production.

Equipment and facilities include:

Three black-and-white printing labs (beginning, advanced, and graduate); an alternative processes lab; 14 color enlargers; mural darkrooms for color and black-and-white; a complete state-of-the-art digital facility that includes Mac G4 and iMac computers; a peripherals lab that houses flatbed, slide, and large-format film scanners; various sized printers; 35mm/4x5 film recorder; a shooting studio; an equipment checkout center with a range of digital, medium format, view cameras, and lighting equipment.